RYAN AND MANDY

Friday, March 27, 2009



Dear Ryan,

First, let me say congratulations on your marriage to Mandy Moore. I am so happy for you. I want you to be happy. You know that. But, I'm a little sad that I had to find out about your recent nuptials while casually reading InTouch Weekly over a plate of Pad Thai the other night. I thought that, after all we've been through together, that you might have called. I don't know. That's just me.

We had so many good times. Remember that time that we carved our names into a tree and then when they cut down the tree you used the wood to make a boat and Christened it my name? Down on Meadowlake Street? You must remember that. A while ago every thing you did said you-hoo missed me... I guess that's over now.

Excuse me if I break my own heart tonight.

Yours,
Allie

I NEED AN UPDATE

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Anyone see Idol last night? I was doing some vocal coaching for a very promising new girl group and had to miss it...

NICE!

Here is Wyatt's list of most influential albums (in no particular order):

Queen- News of the World (my first album ever, I think I was 3)
Nirvana-In Utero
The Dead Milkmen- Big Lizard in my Backyard
Modest Mouse- this is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about
The Beatles- Abbey Road
Songs:Ohia- Ghost Tropic
Smog- Wild Love
Pink Floyd- Meddle
Fugazi- Repeater
Pavement- Wowee Zowee
The Smiths- The Smiths
Califone- Roomsounds
Bauhaus- Mask
David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the World
Echo and the Bunnymen- Heaven up Here
Television- Marquee Moon
Patti Smith- Horses
Joan of Arc- How Memory Works
Yes- Fragile
Pixies- Bossanova

Now that the three of us have all posted lists it's time to analyze. First and foremost: there is no one album that is on all three of the lists. We each cited a Beatles album but all different ones. We also all have Songs:Ohia on our list but Wyatt had to go and be different with "Ghost Tropic" while Jeff and I had the "Magnolia Electric Co." album on our lists. Jeff and I have five common albums, Jeff and Wyatt have one. Wyatt and I, however, have none. Interesting...

BOYS...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

You can't have a band with them... pass the beer nuts.

Here's Jeff's list of most influential albums, unabridged:

marquee moon - television
revolver-beatles
gp/grievous angel - gram parsons
sticky fingers - rolling stones
exile on main street - rolling stones
being there - wilco
everybody knows this is nowhere - neil young
piper at the gates of dawn - pink floyd
doolittle - pixies
songs of leonard cohen - leonard cohen
magnolia electric co. - songs:ohia
nowhere - ride
isn't anything - my bloody valentine
stone roses - stone roses
appetite for destruction - g'n'r
velvet underground - self -titled 3rd album
highway to hell - ac/dc
crooked rain, crooked rain - pavement
seamonsters - the wedding present
louder than bombs - the smiths
music from big pink - the band
workingman's dead - the grateful dead
bayou country - ccr
hunky dory - david bowie
lady soul - aretha franklin
everything the kinks recorded from 1966-1970
plastic ono band - john lennon
dusty in memphis - dusty springfield
sweetheart of the rodeo-the byrds
funhouse - the stooges
tim - the replacements
closer - joy division
gilded palace of sin - flying burrito bros.
faith - the cure
daydream nation - sonic youth
modern lovers - modern lovers
pyromania - def leppard
#1 record/radio city - big star
pink flag - wire
entertainment - gang of four
your living all over me - dinosaur jr.
mezcal head - swervedriver
yerself is steam - mercury rev
xo - elliot smith
i want to see the bright lights - richard & linda thompson
viva last blues - palace
galaxie 500 - on fire
violent femmes - s/t
slowdive - souvlaki

No list yet from Wyatt...

Speaking of gender issues in music (something I have a chip on my shoulder about sometimes) my March On the Beat is up.

CHEAP!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009


There are 12 copies of our first album Pole to Pole for sale on Amazon.

THE CRAZIES ARE OUT

I think that the crazies in this town come out in waves. You won't see a seriously crazy person for a while and then all of a sudden they are everywhere. I think it has to do with the phases of the moon or the seasons or something. This morning they were out. One of them sat next to me on the 7 train. He was sort of staring at me for a while but I pretended not to notice and didn't look up from my book. Then all of a sudden he started muttering. I couldn't understand him at first and then, as he got louder, I picked up a few words - "David Lee Roth" and "Chocolate Milk". When the volume got even louder it was completely clear that he was saying "David Lee Roth drank a hundred chocolate milks? He is going to be sick tonight. Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth drank a hundred chocolate milks! Chocolate milks. David Lee Roth. Chocolate milks."

IF THEY MATED



I came to the conclusion last night that Anoop Desai is the perfect combination of Kal Penn and Michael Cera. This probably explains why I like him so much. Harold and Kumar and Superbad are both pretty high up there on my list of favorite movies.





I like Juno, too. And, House. Anyhooz... Anoop kicked ass last night. I might have to buy this:



As for the rest of the top 11 - I like the tender dogg (Kris). He was good. Adam's Ring of Fire display was creepy and made me uncomfortable but I think that was what he was going for so, Congrats, Adam. You pulled it off. Your voice is incredible. Randy Travis seemed utterly stumped by it, though. Poor Megan was sick but more than made up for it in boobs. I voted for Anoop but I thought about voting for Scott. I really want him to stick around. I think Alexis should be eliminated, or maybe Michael Sarver.

BEL AIR VS. FACEBOOK

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I tried putting Bel Air music up on Facebook but, in order to upload songs, you have to provide 8 kinds of valid ID with pictures and raised seals.


Huh? Too hard!

So, I thought, since I could'nt bring Bel Air to Facebook, I would post a recent Facebook thing that's going around right here on our official blog. The idea is to post your top 20 most influential albums of all time. These are supposed to be albums that "had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions." Here's mine (in no particular order):




1. Appetite for Destruction - Guns 'n Roses
2. Thriller - Michael Jackson
3. Blue - Joni Mitchell
4. Lover Man - Carmen McRae
5. Sgt. Pepper - The Beatles
6. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
7. GP/Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons
8. Violator - Depeche Mode
9. Survival - Bob Marley
10. Blue Light, Red Light - Harry Connick Jr.
11. OK Computer - Radiohead
12. XO - Elliott Smith
13. Pentouse - Luna
14. Faithless Street - Whiskeytown
15. 10 - Pearl Jam
16. This Year's Model - Elvis Costello
17. Grace - Jeff Buckley
18. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
19. Magnolia Electric Co. - Songs:Ohia/Magnolia El.Co.
20. Black Sheep - Martin Sexton
21. Music from Big Pink - The Band

I'm not winning any originality awards here, I realize.

Maybe Jeff and Wyatt will post their top 20s, too.

In other Facebook/blog/life news - please check out this post on Grant Miller Media - 25 Random Things about Me! by Bryan Adams.

FRENCH HORN

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

I recently picked up one of these for a bargain price on eBay:



Woo Hoo!!!!!!! Ever since I hated playing the french horn back in grade school and middle school, I have wanted one of my very own. The one I got is old and beaten up but I'm sure it will do just fine. Pretty soon I will be just like this lady:

BOOK REPORT #2




Geoff Emerick's book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles is a first hand account of what it was like to work with the Beatles from their first session when they were nobodies through to the end. The first time I picked up this book was when Bel Air was recording at Cowboy Technical Services in Williamsburg. There was a copy hanging around by the couch. In some downtime, I started reading it and had a hard time putting it down. I had that same feeling thoughout the book once I got my own copy.

This was the first book I'd ever read about the Beatles. When I was a kid I thought of myself as quite the little Beatles scholar because I had memorized the documentary "The Compleat Beatles" by watching it on repeat one summer. But, despite this comprehensive education, I really knew nothing about them before reading this. I was riveted by stories that others have probably heard many times over. What is new in this book is the account of Emerick's life - his childhood and how he developed a passion for music and recording at a very early age. He was a teenager when he started working with the Beatles.



Naturally, given the author, the sections about the recording process are some of the best. It's incredible what Emerick was able to do with such limited recording equipment. Sgt. Pepper was recorded using four track recorders! Reading about how they overcame the challenges of this in brilliantly inventive ways was fascinating. I found myself turning down corners of pages in which Emerick explains the tricks they used so that I could go back and listen to those songs with that in mind. I really wish I had loaded up my iRiver with Beatles albums before starting this book.

Emerick's accounts of the Beatles themselves were, at times, harsh. He is decidedly in Paul's camp and has no problem telling stories about what a sub-par guitar player George Harrison was in the beginning or how moody and self-involved John was. This may have been the way things were but I can't help but find his point of view overly biased. Emerick had a close relationship with Paul, eventually having him as the best man at his wedding. He also went on to engineer Wings albums and some of Paul's solo stuff. There is a chapter near the end about recording Band on the Run in Africa that is particularly engrossing.

I recommend this to fans of the Beatles and particularly those interested in engineering and recording. It's an entertaining, informative and inspiring read.

Book Report #1

SHORT ORDER STRINGS

I think this is brilliant. Short Order Strings is an LA based company that provides live string parts for your songs. It's entirely an online operation. You upload your song, fill out a form saying where you want the strings and what strings you want and they record it for you. It's cheap, too.